Death Valley
2024 peakbagging and other activities - Printable Version

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RE: 2024 peakbagging and other activities - DAW89446 - 2024-01-24

That nearly perfect hole in the tortoise shell looks like it could be from a bullet.

RE: 2024 peakbagging and other activities - shane - 2024-01-25

I did Leaning in Feb 2021, surprised to hear it’s so seldom visited. Walking the old road makes for an easy approach and the views are nice.

RE: 2024 peakbagging and other activities - MojaveGeek - 2024-01-25

Did you follow the old roadbed from the North road past the north side of the Niter Beds to get to the base of Leaning? Looks really scenic over there but those cross valley treks make for long days at my pace. The roadbed after it turns south was generally quite evident

RE: 2024 peakbagging and other activities - John Morrow - 2024-01-25

(2024-01-24, 08:04 PM)Brice Wrote: The last entry on the summit log was 3 years ago.  From the summit looking at Grapevine Peak and Mount Palmer.  My car is somewhere down there too.

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Awesome to get over there.  that's a long flat approach!  Great look back at the mouths of Red Wall and Fall Canyons.

RE: 2024 peakbagging and other activities - MojaveGeek - 2024-01-25

That Sexton non BM is in an interesting place. There used to be a railroad of some sort from the Inyo Mine heading east to the big escarpment overlooking the Amargosa Valley, and there was a winch system up there. Not much left of it, but there would have been a clear line down to near the base of the hill that BM is on the side of. I would not be surprised to find remnants of some historical camp around there, but it sounds like what you found is much more modern trash?

RE: 2024 peakbagging and other activities - Brice - 2024-01-25

(2024-01-25, 11:17 AM)MojaveGeek Wrote: Did you follow the old roadbed from the North road past the north side of the Niter Beds to get to the base of Leaning?  Looks really scenic over there but those cross valley treks make for long days at my pace.  The roadbed after it turns south was generally quite evident

No, I took a straight line from North road to the mountain and I'm glad I did.  I considered taking the road, but it adds 0.6 miles each way and it's cut by a lot of washes, so it's not a cakewalk.  The straight line terrain isn't bad at all.  I doubt it's much more work than the road would have been.

RE: 2024 peakbagging and other activities - Brice - 2024-01-25

(2024-01-25, 06:48 PM)MojaveGeek Wrote: That Sexton non BM is in an interesting place.  There used to be a railroad of some sort from the Inyo Mine heading east to the big escarpment overlooking the Amargosa Valley, and there was a winch system up there.  Not much left of it, but there would have been a clear line down to near the base of the hill that BM is on the side of.  I would not be surprised to find remnants of some historical camp around there, but it sounds like what you found is much more modern trash?

I saw no evidence of anything like that but didn't do a whole lot of looking.  There were some very old rusted tins around the cave that I'm sure are quite old, but most of the debris was more modern.

RE: 2024 peakbagging and other activities - MojaveGeek - 2024-01-25

(2024-01-25, 07:55 PM)Brice Wrote: No, I took a straight line from North road to the mountain and I'm glad I did.  I considered taking the road, but it adds 0.6 miles each way and it's cut by a lot of washes, so it's not a cakewalk.  The straight line terrain isn't bad at all.  I doubt it's much more work than the road would have been.

LOL, I should have checked peakbagger first, I forgot that you post there Smile You make damned good time!

Thanks!!

RE: 2024 peakbagging and other activities - shane - 2024-01-25

The old road takes you to approximately 2/3 of the way to the base of Leaning. It’s in great shape so you’re there before you know it.

RE: 2024 peakbagging and other activities - Brice - 2024-01-26

I finished off the Grapevine mountains today with a climb of Thimble Peak.  With Titus road closed and no bicycle at my disposal, I was forced to hike from Daylight pass.  The first 4 miles is a light bushwhack, dodging thorny plants, weaving through a spider web of washes, and climbing over small ridges if they're choked with too much brush.  It makes for slow going, but I knew what to expect having climbed Titanothere and Fliptop peaks last November via the same route.

I took this photo at the last minor saddle, looking towards the remaining hike before I eventually hooked up with the Titus canyon road.

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There was about 3.5 miles of road hiking before I reached Red Pass.  The road has sustained significant damage since it has been closed.  There was one set of old-ish tire tracks that turned around at this spot.  The damage here was a couple feet deep.  There were more spots like this one that will take some work to restore.

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Other than the one set of vehicle tracks, I only saw one set of bicycle tracks but no other signs other humans have been along this road since its closure.  I was surprised to not see dirt bike evidence since we all know of those two dummies that got themselves into trouble a couple months ago.  Eventually I reached a ~1000 lb boulder in the road climbing up to Red Pass.  There were many boulders and rockfalls on the road, but this was the largest.

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Photo from Red Pass looking north into the Leadfield area.  It's hidden by shadow in the photo, but there was another large boulder in the road.  Possibly larger than the one I had already passed.

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On the way up to Thimble I took this photo looking back at the ground I covered to get up to this point.

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Thimble peak looking pretty great.

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I can't say I recommend this hike as there is a significant amount of elevation gain on the way back that had my legs complaining.  But the climb from Red Pass to Thimble is very nice.  Being out there, in a normally busy place with nobody else around was also great.  With a bicycle, someone could easily bike to the bottom of the Red Pass climb, or all the way to Red Pass if physically able.  Plus the way back would be a breezy coast rather than a bushwhack.

For the curious:
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